80 - ""''''- ''''''''''''''r'''''''''''' ...... ...... .t'",r N' ,(' .r....... "'" ::.. DON'T EXPECT'.. EVERY RAINCOAT TO PERFORM lIJ<EA.. " . . lONDON FOG <>:. ...,. , -tt w ' .: < < > ; , v:." , ^ ' ''-< ;i ....L' ;;.; : 3", :,i' v"'= -......;iN .. ,^ ' ::: :qF ... ......:$= ., WEA ) DATED M sä o Wear it today and every day right through spring. This classic polyester and cotton check is a Maincoat@ by london Fog. During the winter months, zip in the lining of Acrilan acrylic pile. And remember it's guaranteed for one full year's normal wear, refund or replacement when returned with tag and sales slip to Monsanto. Shown: Alpine in grey check or brown check. Regular sizes. $73.50. Available at all Bamberger s Stores. 2 f/di lONDONTOWN CORPORATION BALTIMORE MARYLAND 21211 2 web of accountability around the PI esidency, around the Congress. The problem is not power; it is unaccount- able power. To begin with, we can- not hold institutions accountable if we do not know what is going on. We did not know that secret investigative and intelligence units had been established in the Whlte House. We did not know that decisions had been taken which had the effect of suspending some of the guarantees in the Bill uf Rights. We did not-and still do not-know the degree to which government was sold and to which there were attempts to use the instruments of government against citizens expressing legitimate opposition. ...t\ny President would want a responsive bureaucracy and a coöp- erative Cabinet, but we have now seen the dangers of an executive branch that is unaccountably responsive to an unaccountable White Huuse. The only thing between us and that is us-and the Congress. The Congress may not b bl . . 11 cc " e a e, InstItutIona y, to manage the complexities of society, but it can . " . h " A d h exerCIse oversIg t. n t e over- sight functions can be rearranged so as to break up the sweetheart con tracts between the Congress and the agencies it is supposed to oversee The Congress can write curbs on lawless government and see to it that they are enforced It can help to protect independence (:lnd integrity in the bureaucracy. It can open its own methods to scrutIny, so that we know more about what it is dOIng and to whom it is responding. Congress is the accessible branch. The executive branch can become remote and inaccessible and arrogant. The Su- preme Court is remote and inaccessible, guided by canonical doctrine. The Congress responds to great outside pressures. So, in the end, it comes down to us. MARCH 12 T HE crocuses are up, and the forsythia is in bloom. There IS still a chill to the breeze. \Ve often get one more snowstorm or cold spell here after the crocuses appear, as if winter wouldn't give up and let us have our spring. Spring in Washington is unlike anything I have Seen anywhere else. When the azaleas finally reach full bloom, toward the end of April, the city has an astonishing, almost exotic look and feel. . A T Key Biscayne this past weekend, a spokesman for the President said that the White House was aware of the "semantical differences" be- tween the accounts of the March 21 st meetIng which the President gave last week and last August. . A HARRIS poll published yesterday showed that fifty-four per cent of those interviewed believed that "if President Nixon fails to turn over the information the House JudicIary COln- Inittee wants, that committee should vote to bring up impeachment charges against the President." By sixty-foul per cent to seventeen per cent) the respondents said they did not be]Ïeve that the President would turn over all the evidence to the committee. And bv seventy-one per cent to eighteen per cent the respondents said they believed that the President had withheld im- portant Information. A Minnesota poll published two days ago showed that fifty-eIght per cent believed that Presi- dent Nixon had ((broken his oath of office. " . G ERALD FORD is quoted in toda)'s Timps as having said yesterda} that he IS stIll convInced that President Nixon was not involved in Watergate or the coverup. "But time will tell," he added. In January, Hugh Scott, Re- publican of Pennsylvania and the Sen- ate MInority Leader, said he had seen some "information" not made publiC' b} the White House which would "ex- culpate the President" un son1e specific items in the W atergat affair. A cou- ple of days later, Ford said he had been offered an opportunIty to èxamine this evidence but had chosen not to. A week before the Vice-President said this, he had made a speech in At- lantic City in which he said that "a few extreme partisans" were trying to dri\ e the President from office. The ,;peech caused an uproar, and F'ord's allies let it be known that White House aides had written the speech. . I N an interview with Lesley Oelsner which appeared in today's l-'im,cs, St. Clair said that the President did not fail to tell law-enforcement authorities about the payment of money to buy silence, because "the President is the chief law-enforcement officer of the " country. . T HE White House has leaked to the press a letter from John Doar to St. Clair requesting more informa- tion, the object of the leak being to show that the committee had asked for tapes of forty-two-some press reports say forty-three-conversations, r'lther